


when the ties were barely binding

by saboala



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ishbal | Ishval, Royai - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 15:18:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18182282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saboala/pseuds/saboala
Summary: royai songfic based on 'easy as life' from the musical aida.





	when the ties were barely binding

**Author's Note:**

> i've had this saved in my google drive since like... the beginning of december and have rewritten and edited things so much that i can't look at this section of it anymore. there's still many other sections that'll come.. soon i hope?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i tried to dig into riza's anger and hurt towards roy for misusing flame alchemy. hopefully,, that worked .

**_This is the moment when the gods expect me_ **

**_To beg for help but I won't even try_ **

**_I want nothing in the world but myself to protect me_ **

**_But I won't lie down, roll over and die_ **

 

Joining the military wasn’t her hardest decision to make, but it wasn’t her easiest decision either. All the people in her life had either died or left and the only place where she’d know at least one person was in the military. So, she joined the hundreds of others deciding to put their lives on the line. Her father was probably rolling over in his grave, but Riza could care less. She wasn’t going to waste her life away in a town with no doors of opportunity. At least here she’d be surrounded by others, maybe she’d find the only other person she knew. Yet even with those possibilities in mind, when she was forced into the middle of a genocide, Riza wished she never would’ve signed up in the first place. 

Innocence had been ripped away from her hands and replaced with the chilling metal of a rifle. She had been thrown onto the battlefield before even completing her time at the military academy and was told to shoot at anything and anyone not in an Amestrian military uniform. Riza knew that the gods in the sky above were mocking her naivety, falling over in laughter at her stupidity for thinking the military was ever going to be a home for her. They called out her name, telling her to run back to her empty home in the country and hide from the harsh reality her father sheltered her from, but Riza refused. She wouldn’t turn on her heel and run away from the ghosts of strangers that haunted her sleepless nights, no, she’d stay and fight, regardless of whether or not she had something to fight for.

For the first time in Ishval, Riza wanted to run. She had protected plenty of Amestrian soldiers in her time as a sniper, but this time had been different, this time she knew the life she was saving. Through the scope of her gun she could see him, staring in shock at the body he clearly didn’t know was behind him. Riza watched as his eyes trailed the path that led to her post, high up in some run-down building, but before he had the chance to see who had saved him, Riza turned her head and pulled her hood up, hiding from his view. 

Gears in her head turned as she tried to come to terms with the fact that Roy Mustang was in Ishval. She knew that he had joined the military, but never expected him to actually fight in the war. Roy Mustang told her of his plans to fix the country, not have a hand in ruining it. Registering his actions, him slaughtering hundreds with the abilities  _ she  _ gave him, made Riza want to jump up and flee the desert. She wanted to run away and hide in the corner of her childhood bedroom, far away from the flames that she never wanted to come face to face with. 

There was once a time when a promise stood between the two, weaving their lives together with a red string of roaring fire, but clearly, that promise meant nothing to him now. Of course, she had heard about the  _ Flame Alchemist _ and his astounding powers, but Riza forced herself to believe that it was somebody, anybody other than him. She didn’t quite understand alchemy, her father never let her be around his books growing up, giving her reason to think that somebody else could’ve cracked the code as Berthold had done, but she was wrong. Roy Mustang broke his promise to her and with the snap of his fingers, all of Riza’s hope and trust in him burned away.

 

She could’ve stayed away from him for the rest of her time in Ishval, but like a fool, Riza sought him out. Days had passed since she saved him from death and with every sunrise, Riza contemplated hunting him out in the crowds of military men; it wasn’t until she found herself drifting off into a land of thoughts on the battlefield that she decided to find him. When relieved of her post for what Riza guessed could be considered “lunch”, she began to walk through the empty land, hoping to come across the man with raven hair and onyx eyes to match.

Finding Roy wasn’t as hard as Riza expected, it only took ten or twenty before she could see the outline of his body atop a hill, another man standing beside him. Her eyes were tricked for a moment, seeing him from a distance made him appear like the boy she once knew from summer nights and winter mornings, but Roy Mustang was no longer the teenage boy that teased her behind her father’s back, he was a murderer now and so was she. Riza trekked through the sand and called out his name as her heart trembled and thumped rapidly deep in her chest.

“Mister Mustang.” Riza kept her voice level, prohibiting her nerves from ripping through her words. Maybe she should’ve called him by his military rank, she was definitely beneath him and it was only proper to refer to him with respect, but something in her held her back. She wouldn’t call him by his rank, but she wouldn’t call him by his name either. He was never Roy to her, at least not when people were around. Barriers that surrounded them were put in place by her father years ago and they prevented her from being anything but formal in the presence of others. 

“Do you remember me?”

“How could I forget?” He replied.

The shock on her face and the anguish clouding his eyes proved that it was a slip of the tongue and nothing more. He wasn’t supposed to remember her that easily, she was supposed to be a fading memory in the back of his head, not a ghost that traveled down the path of his heart each and every night. 

Riza’s eyes fell to the ground and she tried to count each grain of sand underneath her feet. She couldn’t look at Roy, not when her blood was pumping with anger, the feeling of betrayal wrenching her heart. He made a promise, broken it, and all Riza wanted to do was flee from his sight and never come in contact with him again. If only she had seen how Roy was looking at her, Riza might’ve known his pain. His eyes screamed for her to get out of Ishval and never return. She was the last person he wanted to see on the battlefield, but she would never know that. 

“I wasn’t aware that you knew each other, Roy.” The other man’s voice jerked Riza’s head up, turning her attention to him. She hadn’t seen this guy before, how did he know who she was? 

“This is the skilled sniper that everyone’s been raving about. I think you go by some nickname, right? The Hawk’s Eye?”

For a second, Riza had forgotten her fame, forgotten that she was the notorious Hawk’s Eye who hadn’t missed a single shot in her training and hit the bullseye of every Ishvalan that came into her view. 

Roy still looked at her and she could feel his gaze burning into her skin, hotter than any of the flames he could ever produce. 

“We were frie–”

“He studied under my father.”

Amber mixed with onyx, both shades masked by a pain that would never get tapped into. Roy had been her friend, but only at night, in the shadows of her father’s torn-down home. Outside of the secrecy in Riza’s bedroom, they were nothing more than acquaintances. In places they could be seen, their history was nonexistent. Nobody was supposed to know about the times they stayed up until dawn, sitting on the floor of Riza’s bedroom, hushedly giggling about how strict Berthold Hawkeye was. Nobody was supposed to know about the secret looks from across the dining room table during breakfast and dinner. And absolutely no one was supposed to know about the few nights they spent lying in each other’s arms, stealing gentle kisses underneath Riza’s blanket. That past was kept hidden for a reason and it was to remain that way forever.

They had been teenagers then, foolish and blind to the true pains of love, and standing before each other now, the blinds sheltering the two were opening, allowing hurt to filter into their hearts. 

Maes Hughes, who had introduced himself sometime in between the awkward silence, was quick to realize that there was something more, something masked beneath the surface that wasn’t any of his business. Glancing between the two of them, he could read the tension like a textbook. He shouldn’t dig his nose into this and try to uncover the buried secrets. If he was meant to know about the relationship between his closest friend and this new face, he’d learn in time.

“We should catch up in private, Ri–…” Roy coughed. “Hawkeye.”

All Riza could do was nod as Maes spewed questions about her last name, joking about how it connected to her alias.

 

Night had fallen by the time they were free of their duties and able to talk in privacy. Roy shared a tent with Maes and the second Riza pulled the flap back, Maes hopped up out of his sleeping bag and stepped outside, throwing Riza a warm smile on the way. 

Silence encased them then, both unsure of what to say. Riza was still angry and Roy was still in shock. So, they sat across from each other on opposite sides of the tent without speaking a single word. The tension was so thick Riza swore she choked on it a couple of times, but then again that might’ve been the residue left in the air from Roy’s destruction. No matter how far away she was from the fighting, Riza could always feel the flames crawling down her throat. 

“I missed you.” Out of all the things Roy could’ve said to break the quiet, Riza hadn’t anticipated  _ that _ . His voice was hoarse and broken, not strong and full of determination like it had been the last time they had spoken, and even though Riza was pissed, she couldn’t deny the panging in her heart from hearing him so shattered.

“I…” She didn’t want to say it. She  _ shouldn’t _ say it. “I missed you, too.”

“Riza, I’m–”

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, head jerking up to shoot him with a glare her bullets couldn’t match. 

Roy’s face fell if it could fall any more, and Riza hated herself just a bit for being so harsh. What else did she expect when she saw him earlier that day? Did she expect him to be a regular soldier? No, he earned the title of State Alchemist ages ago, it was a no-brainer that he would be using his,  _ her _ , knowledge out in the field. Regardless, Riza couldn’t stop herself from feeling betrayed. The promise had been broken and that was that.

“I’m so sorry,” Roy whispered, voice cracking with the threat of tears. He hated the war, hated the fact that he had to use everything she gave him to murder. He didn’t want to be in Ishval, didn’t want to take the lives of innocent people, but he had been given an order and should he disobey, it’d be his life instead of theirs. 

Riza couldn’t say anything at first, head spinning with opposing emotions. She was still pissed off, for sure. She was hurt and nothing was going to change that, but even her anger couldn’t completely fight away the urge to pull Roy into a bone-crushing hug. It had been so long since she had been in his arms, the last time being the night before he left the Hawkeye estate for the academy. The feeling of him wrapped around her, his chin resting on top of her head and her face buried in the curve of his neck, was something that Riza would never forget. 

Truthfully, she should’ve stayed put on the opposite side of the tent, close to the entrance so she could sneak out whenever she needed to. She should’ve explained her frustrations to him, unleashing the rage in her chest and clearing the nasty thoughts of him in her head. Riza should’ve done a lot of things to fix what was left untouched between them, but she didn’t. 

Instead of talking, she stomped over to Roy and wound her arms around his middle, hiding her face in the comfort of his chest. As if his body was conditioned to move with hers, Roy’s arms encircled her waist and pulled her as close to him as possible. 

Riza tried to ignore the teardrops that fell onto her head. She tried to hold her own tears back too, but Roy was broken and so was she and all they really had out in the unknown field of war was each other.

“I don’t want to be here.” 

“I know.”  _ I don’t want to be here either. _

“I’m so fucking sorry, Riza, I–I never wanted to do this.” 

“I know.”  _ I know you’d never want to do anything as horrible as this. _

“I lov–”

“I know.”  _ I love you too. _

The two ended up on the floor eventually, bodies still pressed against each other, needing to feel the companionship that they had missed for so long. 

Maybe they fell asleep at some point, maybe they didn’t. 

But even if they had been away, neither Roy nor Riza noticed Maes coming back into the tent, a small page in the book of their relationship decoding right before his eyes. He wouldn’t say anything, to them or to anybody else. From that sight alone, Maes knew that they needed each other to survive and he wasn’t going to be the one to split them apart.

 

Leaving Ishval was harder than walking into it. It was their last day in the desert, the war had been won and every soldier was free to return home. Riza, for some reason unknown to her, couldn’t find the strength to leave. Bodies were scattered all around her with no one to bury them, their blood drying into the ground from the unrelenting eastern sun. She couldn’t bury all of them, but she could bury one.

A young boy, no more than five, laid closest to her, white hair fanned out in the sand. Riza didn’t know this child, didn’t know his name or his personality or anything at all, but she felt it was her duty to do something, anything, for the boy. She choked back a sob as she lifted the tiny, fragile body into her arms and carried him away to an emptier place, one where his grave wouldn’t be drenched in the blood of his people. 

Once Riza found a clear spot, she began to dig into the earth with her bare hands, the boy’s body by her side. Tears streamed down her cheeks with each handful of sand she pulled from the ground. She shouldn’t have to do this, this kid shouldn’t be dead in the first place, the entire fucking genocide should’ve of happened in the first place but it did and now she’d be spending the rest of her life trying to make up for her sins. Riza’s innocence had been torn away from her and in turn, she tore the life away from innocent people, it was only right that she do everything in her ability to make up for the tragedy she helped rain down on this nation.

The child was buried quickly, partially because Riza could’ve been seen caring for enemy corpses but more so it was because the young soldier couldn’t handle feeling the cold skin underneath her fingers knowing she took part in the boy’s death. Riza’s hands crafted the wounds that took away this child’s breath and now those same hands were constructing his grave. Riza wanted to throw up. 

She couldn’t stop patting the dirt, making sure it was secure and completely covered the dead body. Maybe she didn’t want to stop either. Stopping meant that Riza would have to get up, dust off her pants and move on from the bloodied battlefield. Stopping meant that she’d return to Amestris and start going up in ranks of pride and prestige, ranks that didn’t and never would deserve. Riza didn’t want to go back to Amestris. Riza didn’t want to go anywhere at all.

“Burying a fallen comrade?”

Weeks ago Riza would’ve jumped at the sound of an oncoming voice, but she was changed now, no longer scared of anything that came her way. She wouldn’t be scared of this voice anyway, she knew exactly who it was.

“No,” Riza answered, turning on her heels to look up at Major Mustang, who was standing a few feet away from her. “It was an Ishvalan boy.” 

Roy’s eyes twitched with despair, gazing at the pile of sand behind Riza, who was facing the grave again. This war truly did take anyone and everyone. It stole the life from victims of oppression and stole the hearts of soldiers who couldn’t disobey their nation.

“The war’s over. Let’s go home,” he suggested, not moving from his spot. If he were to get any closer, he’d be invading her personal space, a space that he no longer had the right to be in. 

_ Over _ .  _ Home _ . Riza couldn’t process those words in the way they were meant to be understood. Perhaps the Ishvalans were under control, maybe the shooting had stopped, but the war was still raging on within Riza. The scent of burning bodies, the screams of victims, and the cracking of rifles engulfed her, dragging her down into a place she wasn’t sure she could return from. 

“This war isn’t over yet,” she started, running her hand over the fresh grave one last time. “It lives on inside me and always will. It’s my duty now to prevent something like this from happening again.”

“My decisions are what brought me to Ishval. I decided to trust you with my father’s research. I decided to sign up for the Academy and now I get to make another decision, one that’ll never let a war this destructive happen again.”

Rocks crunching behind her let Riza know that Roy was closer to her now. He had told her of his dreams, but she had never opened up about hers before. 

“I’ve killed and I’ve enabled a killer, too. Nothing can deny that, no matter how badly I want to refuse it, it’s a fact. That’s why… Why I need you to do something for me, Major Mustang.” 

“The back that I trusted you with, I want… I need you to burn it beyond recognition.” Tears pooled at the corners of Riza’s eyes. She knew what she was asking of him, was well aware of the pain that it’d bring the both of them but maybe they, or at least she, deserved it. 

Roy gasped from behind her, stunned by her request. He had gotten accustomed to burning bodies over the course of the war, but he would never be able to burn  _ her _ . He could hurt anybody like that, anybody but her. 

“I could never do that to you,” Roy snapped, anger flaring up within him the more he thought about what Riza had said. There was no way in hell he’d do that to her, not if he didn’t have to. He had put Riza through enough just from using the alchemy in the war, he couldn’t turn around and physically hurt her too. 

“I’ll never be able to repent for what I’ve done here! These sins are far too dark for me to ever come back from them! All that I can do now is prevent another Flame Alchemist  from being created. ” Riza shifted on the ground, her head turning back to look at him. Tears streamed down her cheeks, honey eyes trembling with sincerity. She needed him to do this for her.

“This burden will be lifted from my shoulder’s and I might be able to  _ live _ a little without my father haunting my every move. I need you to do this for me, please.”

Heaving a sigh, Roy’s head dropped, gaze falling to the ground, unable to look her in the eyes any longer. He desperately wanted to say no, wanted to yell at her for even assuming that he could go through with something like that, but he couldn’t say no to her. 

“Alright,” he huffed, eyes flicking back up to meet hers. “I’ll do it.”

 

The Hawkeye Estate had been run down a long time before Berthold Hawkeye died. For Riza, the manor lost its homeliness the second her mother died. She had been about five or six then. Her father actually knew how to be a parent when Elizabeth Hawkeye was alive, but Berthold’s soul died along with his wife’s, leaving Riza bound to a hollow memory of childhood. It was ironic that she’d be cutting the final ties to her past in that same house. Realistically, she suggested they do it here, far away from people so nobody would be able to hear her screams, but the idea of ridding herself of this burden in the same place it occurred was powerful. 

They were in her bedroom. Roy stood by the door and Riza by the bed with her back facing him. Both were too anxious to move on with what they were there to do. Roy was terrified of fucking up and injuring Riza worse than she would be. Riza, on the other hand, was scared of showing vulnerability for the first time in her life. She trusted Roy wholeheartedly, she knew that he’d destroy it all and free her of the chains that restrained her, but it was still scary to be so open with someone. Her father raised her to be shut off and she had lived that way for so long it was all she could do. Who knew one boy would come into her life and pull out so much faith and love from her heart. 

Minutes passed before Riza took a deep breath, exhaling all her worries in one go. They needed to get this over with soon. Burning her entire back would take most of the night and she wanted it done before the morning sun. 

“You have the water, right?” Riza asked, unbuttoning her shirt and letting it fall off her shoulders to the floor. 

“Y–Yeah.” The small metal tub of cold water sat on the floor beside him.

Roy couldn’t break his gaze away from her bare back, eyes following the circles of the tattoo he had studied. He remembered how entranced he was when he had first seen the tattoo. He understood the circles quickly, thanks to the intense teaching Berthold Hawkeye had put him through. Roy never thought there’d be a day he’d have to erase the only notes he had on his notorious craft, yet here he was about to burn it all down. 

“Are you sure about this?” He asked cautiously, taking a step closer to Riza, a single hand lifting as if he was going to trace his fingertips over the skin. 

Riza nodded immediately, not having to think about the question at all. 

“I need this to move on.”

There had to be other ways, Roy knew there had to be. He tried his best to persuade her against going down the path of bodily torture every day leading up to tonight, but Riza wouldn’t listen, too firm in her decision. 

“I’m going to lay down, now. Put the water beside the bed and then… it’s all up to you.” Riza’s voice was firm, but faint at the same time. Roy could tell that she was getting more scared by the second, but whether or not she feared the fire or the future was a mystery.

Riza did exactly as she said and laid down on the bed, her back staring up at the ceiling. Roy followed her directions when she was settled, pushing the tub of water up to her side and then… he didn’t know what to do. Everything was in his hands now and acidic reluctance ate as his throat. God, he didn’t want to do this. He didn’t even know where he should sit or what he should do, but Riza was waiting for him, so he’d have to figure it out quickly. 

“Roy?” His name broke through the silence like an alarm, bringing him back down from his thoughts. They could be open here, where nobody could see them. Being back in this room meant that they were just Roy and Riza again, not Mustang or Hawkeye preceded with an honorific or military title. She was looking up at him, amber eyes wide with worry, she feared that he was backing down and breaking yet another promise they had made.

“S–Sorry…” He stuttered. “I’m just… unsure of where I should sit or stand or whatever…?” His words flew out of his mouth like a question rather than a statement and Riza’s face softened, worries of him dropping out flying from her mind. 

“On the bed, if you’d like? I’ll make room.” Riza shifted from the corner of the bed to the side, allowing room for Roy to sit beside her. 

He stared at the space for a couple of seconds before sitting down, legs crossed and facing her, the bed going down slightly with his weight. 

“Let me know when you’re about to start, okay?” Riza whispered, her cheek pressed against her crossed forearms. 

It was funny, really, how she was the one comforting him even though she was the one about to feel unbearable pain. If anything, he should’ve been comforting her and not the other way around. But Roy simply nodded and tugged a single glove out of his pocket, pulling it over his left hand. He couldn’t delay this any longer, regardless of how badly he wanted to.

“Do you want all of it gone?” He asked in a low voice, right hand trailing over the red lines. 

Riza didn’t flinch at his touch, only nodding to his question then closing her eyes. “All of it.” 

Roy took a deep breath before raising his left hand, analyzing the plane of her back. His eyes found the one section of her page that always made him stop and even now the Latin was yelling out at him. 

 

 _“Totus est in armis idem quando nudus est Amor_ _  
_ _Cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet_

_ … _

_ Veniam peto.” _

_ - _

“ _ Love is as completely mighty as he is naked.  _

_ Let him love tomorrow who has never loved, and let him who has loved love tomorrow _

_ …  _

_ I apologize. _ ” 

 

The words on the bottom middle of her back, directly underneath the same circle that was stitched into his gloves brought tears to his eyes. _Fuck_. He couldn’t cry right now, he had a promise to see through and couldn’t waste time on tears over poems of love etched into the skin of the only person he’s ever loved. He just couldn’t, but he did anyway. Roy Mustang’s love for Riza Hawkeye was mighty, that was irrefutable. He would give earth and sky to her on a silver platter if he could, hell, he’d pick the moon and all the stars from their midnight home and give them to her if she asked. Yet with her naked form laying right in front of him, he couldn’t give her the only thing she wanted. 

They hadn’t been allowed to love each other, not really. His teacher prevented them from being close and even though they broke the rules and had spent handfuls of nights together in this exact place, they never got to be in love. The feelings were definitely there, they hadn’t even faded when he left for the Academy. He had loved her from the second he met her and he’d love her until the second he died. 

It was that love that pushed him closer to the borderline. His eyes narrowed in on one spot, the physics and chemistry painted onto her left shoulder.  _ That’d be a good place to start _ , he thought. 

Roy glanced back down at the small poem one last time, whispering an apology to Riza as he scanned over the last line. She was confused, naturally, she didn’t know the translation or the weight the poem carried in Roy’s heart and maybe after this she never would.

“Riza?”

“Yeah?

“ _ I love you _ .” 

A single snap echoed throughout the room, and then the screams began.

 

_ Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.  _

Roy couldn’t think straight, not with Riza’s blood-curdling screams bouncing off the walls. The moment flames touched her, he reached for the cloth in the tub of water and pressed it to her burning skin, hoping to ease some of the pain. It wasn’t helping enough though, Riza was still screaming with tears flooding down her cheeks and fingers squeezing the sheets she lay on. 

“I’m so sorry…” was all Roy could manage to utter, repeating the phrase over and over again as he kept pressing the cold, wet cloth onto the area.  

He always thought that hearing the distant yells of tortured Ishvalans was the worst sound in the world, but not even a chorus of their screams could amount to how horrifying it was to hear Riza like this. The screams stopped after a bit, Riza forcing herself to gain composure.

“Keep going,” she bit out through her choked sobs, looking up at Roy with pleading, red-rimmed eyes. 

“Riza… I can’t–”

“I said keep going!” the blonde screamed, amber eyes flashing with frustration. Sometimes she was too strong, too persistent for her own good. She’d see anything through to the end regardless of how much it hurt, but this was something that Roy couldn’t let her go through entirely. 

He would do anything she asked, yes, but he wasn’t going to burn her entire back like she originally wanted. One small area had sent her into a frenzy and he wasn’t going to make her go through that for hours on end. 

“I’m not doing the entire thing, Riza,” Roy said firmly, removing the cloth to look at the raw, reddened skin. Shit, he had missed some of the formulas. He’d have to get that area again. 

“You  _ promised _ ,” Riza snapped back, voice going up an octave in fury. “You fucking  _ promised _ that you’d destroy it a–”

“I said I’m not doing the entire thing!” he retorted, coming off harsher than he initially meant to. Tears were threatening to fall from his own eyes now and he wished that Riza understood how much this hurt him too. “I’ll burn what’s important and that’s it, Riza. Certain areas are more important than others and without them the notes will just be a jumbled mess... You could die if I try to do the entire thing in one go and I can’t risk that, I can’t risk losing you.”

Riza fell silent for a second, mulling over his words during moments they didn’t have to spare. They needed to finish this quickly and get Riza bandaged up before the burns started to get infected. 

“Keep going.” She didn’t say anything more, head falling back onto her forearms and leaving Roy unsure of if she was okay with him only burning the important parts. Well, regardless of what she wanted, Roy knew what he was going to do. 

He dropped the cloth back in the tub, ignoring the splashing water that was probably getting all over the floor. Using both hands, he lifted Riza from her lying position on the bed and pulled her into his lap. 

“What are you doing?” She asked through a sniffle.

Roy didn’t answer her question but pulled her close to him, his chin resting gently on her bare shoulder. If he stopped and thought about what he was doing he’d lose the strength to go through with this. He blinked a couple of times, allowing stray tears to roll down his cheeks and onto her skin before raising his left hand in front of her back. Only the important parts. 

“Bite onto my shirt if you have to, okay?” Roy was so close to her ear that he didn’t have to speak up for her to hear him. 

Riza nodded in response, her arms wrapping around his middle and fingers grabbing onto the fabric of his shirt for comfort. 

A hushed thank you fell over Roy’s ears as a lone tear fell onto Riza’s shoulder, and then a snap. 

  
Hours later the two lay in bed, Riza on her front with a bandage wrapped around her chest, shoulder, and back to cover the burns and help with the bleeding. Roy lay beside her, fingers combing through her short hair tenderly, hoping to provide some type of comfort. And with midnight coming on strong, the worst of it was over and Riza Hawkeye was finally _free_ from the bindings her father held beyond the grave.


End file.
